A shirt’s tale: Dirty to clean.

Posted on 04/05/2012 by Aaron

I came across this article from The Guardian, in the UK. It puts a different slant on your average visit to the dry cleaners, and well worth the read, but the article got me thinking, what do people understand of the time your clothes spend at the dry cleaners. Customers shouldn’t spend any more than 5 to 8 minutes total, drop-off and pick-up, but your clothes get a day-spa treatment whilst your away. Here’s an insight into what may happen when you drop a shirt at the dry cleaners.

  1. Your shirt gets checked-in, examined and tagged, you are issued a receipt with your order number and the amount owing, in this case, for one shirt it’s $4.50. Keep that in mind, it’s a little more than a cup of coffee, but I assure you, the work that goes into your shirt is more than a cup of coffee.
  2. Your shirt gets sorted into ‘lights’ or ‘darks’ and also gets sorted for its ready day.
  3. Your shirt, along with maybe 60 others, goes into a washing machine. Now, we aren’t talking your average home washer, this is a 24kg soft mount (so it doesn’t vibrate and jump all over the place during extraction, the drum sits on suspension like your car). Wash cycle is 30mins.
  4. Ding! 30 minutes later your shirt is clean. Now for drying…ah no! All our shirts stay wet! This is for our shirt former which presses all shirts wet.  All shirts are checked for quality, and what do you know, your shirt has some pretty bad stains around the collar which need extra attention (this is very common). Back your shirt goes to the spotting area.
  5. Your shirt is scrubbed (by hand) with other cleaning agents to try and break down the staining. Back in the wash for another 30min cycle.
  6. Ding! 30 minutes later your shirt is…still dirty! What did you do to your shirt? This time it’s soaked with something a little stronger to move those stains, and after a couple of hours it’s looking brand new! Your shirt will get another quick wash to ensure there are no residues, which will take 18 minutes.Automated shirt former
  7. Now over to the shirt machine. Firstly the shirt is placed on a collar former to press the collars and cuffs. Being wet, when it comes off the former they are super crisp, almost like starch. The shirt then makes its way to our shirt finisher. With the help of an experienced operator the shirt is on and off in about a minute and pressed to perfection. Any touch-ups are done by hand with a steam iron. The result is a crisp, clean shirt that looks as if it’s been hand-finished.
  8. Your shirt is matched with your order, put in plastic and ready for you to collect.

All up, whilst your shirt is having its day-spa treatment, it probably passes through the hands of about 8 people, from check-in to when you collect it. It may be in processing anywhere from 1 to 3 hours depending on the degree of staining. All of this for a little more than a cup of coffee sounds pretty good to me.

Posted in Garment Care, Pressing and finishing, Stain Removal, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When a hanger isn’t “just a hanger”

Posted on 05/03/2012 by Aaron

Sometimes, you lose sight of the things that make you unique, little things you take for granted, things like the coat hanger. I assure you, not all hangers are made equal. Dry cleaners are notorious for putting time and effort into pressing a pair of trousers, and ruining the finished product with a terrible hanger. When you get a new iPhone, it comes in a glorious white box, you open it and the shiny new phone is the first thing you see, headphones and USB cable are tucked away neatly in designated spots, overall the package looks appealing, it looks expensive, it makes you feel…special. Well the coat hanger has the same purpose for a dry cleaner, its part of the packaging. Here’s how we do things different (check out the pics below):

  1. Australian made from Australian Steel. Sure they cost a little more than the bronzed, flimsy wire that are imported, but they look great, stay shiny, and are noticeably stronger than their imported counterparts, and all Australian made!
  2. The ‘special’ shirt hanger. Custom-designed for shirts, this hanger is lighter, and wider across the shoulders, meaning that your shirt sits neatly on the hanger, not with droopy shoulders.
  3. Shoulder guards for jackets. Not only have we got our Aussie made hanger, but we turbo-charged it with a cardboard shoulder guard that sits neatly over the top, has our branding on it, and means that larger jackets sit beautifully, avoiding the droopy shoulder-look.
  4. ‘Special’ trouser guards. Imports with a tubular cardboard addition are notorious for bending in the middle (see below), and the worst part, once the cardboard breaks, there isn’t even a proper hanger underneath to re-use! We use an add-on trouser guard that has a nice concave bend to it, which means your trouser sits neatly over the top and doesn’t get a crease from the hanger. The trouser guard also has a fine strip of tape which prevents trousers falling off.
  5. Foamies. Ever had a delicate or light garment that doesn’t sit on the hanger, or falls off? Well a foamie (as we call it) is literally a strip of foam which sits neatly on one of the Aussie made hangers and helps your garment sit neatly.

Next time you do your dry cleaning, pay closer attention to how your items are returned to you. Are the hangers cheap imports? Or are they good-old custom-designed Australian made hangers manufactured with the sole focus of making your garment look the best it can?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

My jacket has more wrinkles than a 90 year old!

Posted on 06/02/2012 by Aaron
jacket, blazer with bubbles or ripples

suit jacket with bubbles

Ever had a suit jacket that developed “bubbles” or “ripples” on the chest and shoulder areas? “Yes, my jacket looked like that after my dry cleaner ruined it”, I hear you say. Well in this case, your dry cleaner may not be at fault, just hear me out.
Why does it happen?
When a suit jacket is made, the outer fabric is bonded to an interfacing, sometimes called ‘fusing’. It assists with the drape, and shape of the jacket. The bubbling occurs when the bonding process isn’t performed correctly, resulting in the fusing separating from the fabric and lifting. Alternatively, if defective or poor quality fusing is used, sometimes it can shrink during cleaning, which causes the fabric to scrunch and ripple. The temperatures and mechanical action in the dry cleaning process will bring any manufacturing defects to the surface, hence, why people blame their dry cleaner. Getting caught out in the rain, or exposing your jacket to moisture can also accelerate the breakdown of fusing, and, over many years the fusing can degrade as a result of general wear and tear, but will be more of a gradual process, and not overnight as you would expect with defective fusing.
Is it fixable?

fabric and fusing on a jacket

fabric and fusing on a jacket

Unfortunately not. The best solution is that the manufacturer does the job properly the first time, aside from that, your dry cleaner can use a traditional steam press when finishing your jacket (instead of using a jacket former using steam and tensioning), which can help reattach the fusing and fabric, but this is only temporary and will likely result in “shine” on your jacket, also the problem will likely resurface at the next clean.
Deluxe dry cleaning uses sophisticated finishing equipment wherever possible, including jacket formers, shirt formers, trouser toppers and a steam tunnel to deliver a consistent high quality product.

Posted in Clothing Defects, Garment Care, Pressing and finishing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Stain Detective

Posted on 26/11/2011 by Aaron

Being a dry cleaner is sometimes like being a detective, not only do your customers rely on you to remove stains on their clothes, but before you can remove the stain you need to work out what it is. Recently, one of our regular customers started to complain that we were doing an unsatisfactory job cleaning his shirts, in particular not removing stains around the collars, however, this had never been an issue before in a 2 year history with this customer and his shirts. Believing something was wrong in our process we searched for a problem but found no answers. In the mean time the only thing that seemed to work on the stains was soaking them overnight, which is definitely the most time-consuming, and expensive, cleaning method for a week’s worth of shirts, but hey, we will do anything for our customers. Soaking shirts overnight for general dirt and grime on shirt collars is very unusual; we get great results from our washers and automatic dosing equipment, so we started to question the nature of the stains. After doing some research, it turns out the problem was not of our doing, but that our customer had changed his aftershave. The aftershave either had an additive, or was reacting with oils in the skin to produce a very stubborn stain. So, in taking care of your shirts, remember that changes to your daily routine can affect your clothing. Alcohol in deodorant, perfume and aftershave can strip colour, different brands of toothpaste can contain varying strengths of bleach which also strips colour, or an additive in a new aftershave may react with your skin to produce a stain that is stubborn to remove. Give your dry cleaner as much information as possible to help them help your clothes.

www.deluxedrycleaning.com.au

Posted in Garment Care, Stain Removal | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

I want clean clothes, but my care label is confusing!

Posted on 16/09/2011 by Aaron

Garment care label
Clothing designers and manufacturers are increasingly using elaborate and confusing care labels, and as a consumer, it’s becoming harder to know exactly how to safely clean your clothes. Last week one of my many lovely customers brought in some items for cleaning, as usual, my check-in routine requires the inspection of care labels to ensure all items are treated correctly (this is where you give me a pat on the back for doing my job properly). I knew from the feel of the fabric that this dress was something out of the ordinary, but I was surprised when I read the care label. A fabric name that was 20 letters long, cleaning instructions longer than this blog with disclaimers and contradictions thrown in for good measure. The label began with a nice ‘P’ on it, in a circle. For a dry cleaner this is a good news, it’s the international symbol for ‘dry clean’, next it read “to be cleaned by a professional dry cleaner only”, another positive, I’m a professional dry cleaner (at least that’s what people tell me) so I continued only to find that I needed a law degree to understand the disclaimers. “Trims and beading to be masked, professional spot clean only”, huh? For those of you who don’t speak “dry cleaner”, this label pretty much told me to dry clean the dress but to cross my fingers. The Trade Practices Act, tells us that our clothing should be treated in a certain way, and it’s the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that labelling is clear and conforms to industry practices. So next time you buy something that has heaps of beading, or some cool looking metallic thread, or just feels different, consider how you are going to clean it. You may want to think twice about the type, or brand, of clothing that you buy. Just remember, the care label is a friend to you and your dry cleaner :)

Click here to learn more about care labels.

Posted in Garment Care | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Dry Cleaners can be trendy, can’t they?

Posted on 04/07/2011 by Aaron

Social media, the blogosphere, Net 2.0, all these ‘buzz’ terms from marketing gurus about how to reach your customers, what does it all mean? Sitting there in front of my laptop struggling to put finger to keyboard, hesitant to take that first step into the blogosphere I began to ponder “is a blog really the realm of the humble dry cleaner, is it part of the job description?”. I mean, who am I to try and take on this pseudo-journalistic medium affectionately known as a blog? Thinking a little harder I realised that the humble dry cleaner, is not so humble any more, and should not be scared of new things. In fact, technology and the internet have already, unassumingly, become a daily integral part of our business. Take for example our ‘pressing robots’ as affectionately called by one customer. For years we have been using automated equipment to achieve a consistent high quality product, replacing the need for a highly skilled presser and their steam iron (and 3 times as much effort). Our front desk supports 2 computerised, touch screen POS terminals, “but that’s not very special Aaron, Woollies already has those” I hear you shouting out in internet-land, oh but it is when they are fully networked with a third terminal on-site and 2 terminals in our CBD stores, this means your details follow you anywhere in our network, pretty swank hey? Recently we launched our iPhone App, oh wait, it’s available on Android too now, called iDryClean. This little baby lets you check your order status, 6 months of history, and it just looks really cool when you scan your iPhone in-store like a paper docket, who needs paper these days anyway? Oh, don’t forget the Facebook page and our Twitter feed, the dry cleaner has never been so trendy. Looking back on all of this, I guess taking the time to write about our humble little industry including fashion, some general shenanigans, and garment care, isn’t really beyond the reach of the this little dry cleaner anymore. So, hopefully I can provide some insights into our industry you wouldn’t otherwise obtain. Until next time, take care of your clothes, because they’re people too…(I know it doesn’t make sense but it sounds good, ok?)

Posted in Dry cleaning technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments